Former TikTok Employee Claims Company ‘Lying to Congress’ About ByteDance’s Involvement
By Movieguide® Contributor
A former TikTok employee is claiming that parent company ByteDance has more control over the popular app than it is admitting to.
Katie Puris, who is currently suing Tiktok for age- and gender-based discrimination, alleges that ByteDance executives are “TikTok’s real decision makers”—not TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, whom Puris called a “conduit.”
Puris is also claiming TikTok is “lying to Congress” about ByteDance’s level of involvement in the platform.
Chew has been very outspoken about his opposition to the ban. In one video posted to the platform, he said TikTok isn’t “going anywhere,” adding, “We are confident and we will keep fighting for your rights in the courts. The facts and the Constitution are on our side, and we expect to prevail.”
The U.S. ban of TikTok will only be put into place if ByteDance doesn’t sell the company, which it says it has no intention of doing.
“ByteDance doesn’t have any plans to sell TikTok,” the company said in a statement about the situation.
Movieguide® previously reported on the possibility of a sale:
Tech news site The Information reported on Thursday that ByteDance is considering selling TikTok without its algorithm.
The Chinese tech company says this isn’t true.
“ByteDance said a report that it’s mulling the sale of a majority stake in TikTok‘s American business—after the U.S. adopted a law forcing it to divest its ownership position or face a ban of the app—is ‘untrue,’” Variety reported.
The Information claimed that ByteDance “is internally exploring scenarios for selling a majority stake in TikTok’s U.S. business, preferably to companies outside the tech industry, and without the algorithm that recommends videos to TikTok users.”
The Wall Street Journal found ByteDance’s response to the report on its news platform, Toutiao.
“If ByteDance were to entertain the idea of selling off TikTok, it would be a very expensive transaction. In the U.S. alone, the app generated $16 billion in revenue in 2023, valuing the business at up to $150 billion, per a Financial Times report,” Variety reported.
Last year, at a House committee hearing, TikTok’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, explained that TikTok would operate the same way whether ownership was divested or not.
“A change in ownership would not impose any new restrictions on data flows or access,” he said. “All global companies face common challenges that need to be addressed through safeguards and transparency.”
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